Restaurant Review: A Mix of Mellow and Formal at Eaglebrooke

Wednesday

Sep 11, 2013 at 2:44 PM

By ERIC PERATHE LEDGER

Seated in the Trophy Room with its newly renovated bar decked in gleaming, black granite with golden striations and an abundance of flat-panel TVs dedicated to cable sports programming, I succumb to the allure of country club dining.

The Club at Eaglebrooke is posh, yet comfortable. And it comes with a grand, waterside, panoramic view of one of Polk County's better courses, rated 4.5 on a 5-point scale by Golf Digest.

For residents of this South Lakeland hideaway, where home prices top out at $1 million or more, the club restaurant is an attractive perk. At the helm is executive chef David Dunn, who once had two notable Lakeland eateries of his own -- West Palm and The Floridian at the Sheraton.

Fortunately for his fans, The Club at Eaglebrooke is open to the general public, as is the golf course.

Which means anyone can hang, just not in cutoffs and flip-flops, and enjoy some mighty fine grub, as in a prime rib hoagie, the fork-tender meat cooked perfectly and sliced wafer thin. The ample, $9 sandwich, stacked with caramelized onions and oozing white cheese, is a memorable, decadent treat, especially when paired with the house waffle fries.

Just as superb is the club's hamburger, elevated in class by lean, prime beef with the perfect ratio of fat to lean. Slightly charred on a grill and served on a soft, sourdough bun with all the requisite garden frills, it's a burger worthy of its regal surroundings.

The place is divided into two rooms, the main dining room, where the required attire is country-club casual and patrons get to dab their lips with linen, and the less formal Trophy Room, where one can get by in tennis and golf fatigues.

Described by Dunn as an "upscale sports lounge and informal dining room," the casual side has paper napkins and piped music. Theme dinners include Tunes and Tapas Thursday's, with live entertainment and small plates in the $5 to $10 range, along with the regular menu, which is basically the same at lunch.

But evenings get more creative with an abundance of specials that include beer-battered fried fish on Tuesdays, and prime rib on Thursdays. A monthly seafood buffet is said to create something of a frenzy.

A renovation project completed in June doubled the size of the casual room and added 16 flat-panel televisions. Included was the horseshoe bar, which was doing brisk business on a recent Wednesday night, with patrons sipping cocktails while noshing on some of the finest tostones this side of Miami's Little Havana.

The crisp plantain chips, along with their sweeter cousins, maduros, were joined by other Cuban-inspired dishes on a $13-per-plate buffet. Especially good was a savory, braised pork, and bite-size portions of pressed Cubans, the perfect vehicle for a sandwich spread featuring roasted green peppers that left a lingering burn.

On three visits I never spied any children, but the club does cater to little ones with a special menu.

A plate of salmon, the fresh catch of the day, was expertly grilled, accompanied by a nice wild rice pilaf and fresh asparagus. A side of cream of asparagus soup could have used a punch of seasoning.

The menu has been pared a bit since the renovation, but there's a good mix of salads, sandwiches and entrees to suit most tastes. Sandwiches seem to be a forte of the kitchen, which produced a hefty, first-rate reuben with blissfully tender corned beef. Most plates have been artfully arranged, down to the pickle spears.

During an Aug. 27 inspection, the restaurant received one basic and three intermediate violations, including encrusted material on a can-opener blade and a buildup of a mold-like substance inside an ice bin.

Like so many restaurants these days, dessert at The Club at Eaglebrooke may be imported, or, in the case of the apple pie, made in-house. I would suggest you treat yourself to the fruit pie, when available, topped with a melting scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Then waddle, if you can, to the large, expansive window for a bird's eye view, and to revel in how sweet life can be.